


Coming Home

by silentwhisper002



Series: Carl and Stove (Fight me I love them) [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: But He Comes Back Don't Worry, Carl and Stove, Carol Misses Steve, Cats Because It's Me, Co-Captains - Freeform, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'd Like to Thank the Internet, More F L U F F, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Sad with a Happy Ending, Steve is on a mission, natasha is a mom friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22650853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentwhisper002/pseuds/silentwhisper002
Summary: Carol misses Steve and Natasha tries to help, but little does she know, he'll be home sooner than she thinks.(There is a minor reference to my previous work "The Avengers' Not-so-PG-Discord-Servers" But you don't need to read it to understand this one.)
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Steve Rogers
Series: Carl and Stove (Fight me I love them) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616989
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	Coming Home

She’d always found it funny, curious even, how she was so heavily affected by his absence. 

People were coming and going from the Compound all the time. 

Employees and interns arrived in the mornings and went home to their families at night; even the Avengers would be gone for weeks on end and she’d carry one like they’d never left, always happy to see them when they came back home.

But when _he_ was gone, it was like a light went out.

Carol would pull away from everyone and everything, often resorting to boarding herself up in their room with the cat. 

She’d lie back on the unkempt blankets and stare at the ceiling, losing track of the present, waiting for him to walk through the door with some corny pick-up line he’d pulled from Tony, like he always did. 

Hours would go by and she wouldn’t break from her trance until Natasha started threatening to burn her fruit loops if she didn’t come out and get something to eat. 

Either that or Wanda would force the door open and start lecturing her on the consequences of isolation until she gave in and left her hide-out. 

Carol knew her friends were just worried about her, but sometimes she wished they’d just leave her alone. 

Today was one of those times. 

Carol sat hunched over at her desk, staring down into a half finished mug of coffee that was most likely ice cold by now. 

Her knees were drawn up to her chest and she’d wrapped herself in one of Steve’s old blue and white flannels to combat the chilled spring air filtering in through the open window. 

Their shared cat, Trilla, lay curled up atop Carol’s closed laptop, looking mournfully at her companion. 

She lifted a hand and gently stroked it across the felineoid’s purple and brown striped back. The space creature licked her wrist in return and gazed up at Carol with big blue eyes. 

“You miss him, don't you?” she asked in a quiet voice, gently scratching Trilla under the chin. 

The cat didn’t reply, she only stuck her neck out further, demanding more attention. 

“I miss him too.” Her words were barely more than a whisper now, and she fell back into uncomfortable silence, continuing to absentmindedly run her fingers through Trilla’s silky fur. 

“Wow. You’re really not taking it well are you?”

The sudden intrusion startled her, but she didn’t need to turn around to know that Natasha was standing in the doorway wearing the worried look she always carried whenever Carol fell into one of her ruts.

When she didn’t respond, Natasha took it as a cue to keep going. “He’ll be home any day, I promise. Tony said they’re just tending to civilians now, and you know how Steve gets. He won’t leave until he knows every last person is okay.”

The corners of Carol’s mouth twitched up into a smile at the remark. 

Good ol’ Captain America, a true people’s man.

“I know you miss him, but don’t destroy yourself like this. He’s not gone forever.”

“Well, it sure feels that way.” Carol finally responded.

Two months.

He’d been gone for two months, chasing down the last of Hydra with Tony and Thor, which ended in a grand standoff in New Orleans. 

Thanks to the Avengers on the job, no one was hurt, but Carol had just about had a melt down when she’d seen it on the news. Wanda had to hide the TV remote from her for the rest of that week. 

Although it only seemed like a normal six weeks to the rest of the team, for Carol it felt like an eternity. The days seemed to stretch out into years for her as she waited for him to come home. 

Natasha—deciding it was safe to enter seeing as nothing had been thrown at her head—approached her downcast friend. 

“Come on Carol, why don’t you come watch a movie with me and Wanda?” she asked, placing a hand on the distraught woman’s shoulder.

Carol shook her head and shrugged her off. “No thanks. I just need some space.”

The other opened her mouth in protest, but Carol beat her to it. 

“Please.”

Admitting defeat, Natasha nodded and began retreating from the room. Pausing in the doorway, she turned back towards her friend. “Call me if you need anything okay?”

“Okay.” 

“I’ll see you I guess.”

“Hey Nat?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“Of course.” 

Carol listened as Natasha’s footsteps faded down the hall, before burying her face in her arms. 

She didn’t know how much longer she was going to last. Even though she and Steve were in contact almost everyday, it just wasn’t the same.

* * *

Carol wasn’t sure how long had passed when footsteps suddenly jolted her awake. She must have fallen asleep without noticing. 

Lifting her head, she inwardly groaned. For once in her life, could Natasha refrain from taking detours on a direct order?

“Nat, I already told you, I want to be left alone.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that applied to me too.” said a voice that was definitely _not_ Natasha. 

Carol froze.

She was hallucinating.

She had to be.

However, she still glanced over her shoulder, just to be sure.

It wasn’t a hallucination.

Standing against the wall in a forest green sweater with a bag propped against his leg, was none other than Steve Rogers. 

Carol gave him no time to react. 

She shot out of her chair, knocking the whole thing over—scaring the cat in the process—and dashed across the room. Practically throwing herself at him, she jumped into his outstretched arms.

“Oh God—Okay, hello.” he said, stumbling back a bit from the impact, “I guess this means you missed me?”

Carol didn’t know whether to kiss him or slap him across the face, but seeing as she was too happy to give him a lecture right now, she chose the former. 

It felt so good to be back in his arms again, the place where she felt safe. 

Pulling away from each other, she buried her face in his shoulder as he spun her around. It would seem that Steve was just as overjoyed to have her back as well. 

Placing Carol back on the ground, Steve looked her up and down, an amused gleam finding its way into his eyes.

“Is that my shirt?” he asked, falling back into their usual banter.

“Not anymore.”

“How come you always get to steal my stuff?”

“Think of it as collateral for lost time.”

“Alright, I deserve that one.”

“Yes, yes you do.”

“I missed you so much.” He muttered into her hair, pulling her back towards him, “I’m sorry I was gone for so long.”

“It’s okay.” she told him, fighting back tears.

“No, no, I know how you get.” Steve sounded worried now, much like whenever she did something irrational and stupid.

She’d tell him to fuck off if she hadn’t just spent the last two months dreaming of this moment. 

“You’re here now.” she said.

Steve nodded. “Yeah, and I’m going to be for a while yet. I told Tony I’m taking some time off. Those two months were hard on me too.”

Carol pressed herself even further into him as he shut the door behind them and leaned back into the wooden structure, refusing to let her go.

Yes, as strange as it was for her to have someone she relied on, she wouldn’t trade him for the world. 

  
  



End file.
